Zebra Cabs Raises $21.6 Million To Take On Uber And Taxify In South Africa
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SA Taxi-owned Zebra Cabs has raised just over $21.6 million from Futuregrowth Asset Management to expand their owner-driver scheme in Johannesburg, and to take on Uber and Taxify. Their big hairy audacious goal is to have 3 000 cabs on the road by 2020.
This development has got us wondering how many players Africa’s ride-sharing market can sustain. There must be easier ways to make a buck, but it seems the prospect of carving out a chunk of what is potentially a multi-billion dollar industry is clearly too much to pass up for VC's like Futuregrowth. The FOMO is real!
It’s going to be interesting to see how quickly Zebra Cabs burns through their newly-found cash. Will they withstand the fierce price war that's almost guaranteed to ensue? How long will their financiers be willing to wait before they turn a profit? And will more funds be forthcoming when Zebra Cabs needs to extend their runway further down the line? Only time will tell.
In this week’s African Tech Round-up we publish snippets from two conversations Andile Masuku taped at SAP’s Executive Digital Exchange in Camps Bay, Cape Town last week. First, he spoke with SAP’s global Digital Transformation Officer, Dr Chakib Bouhdary, who shared some of the most common misconceptions he encounters regarding digital transformation when he interacts with executives around the world. Chakib also touched on the strategic mindset driving the trend towards large enterprises keenly making big plays outside their traditional businesses.
Then, Andile spoke with SAP Africa MD, Brett Parker, who revealed some of the most critical strategic decisions made by SAP’s global leadership back in 2010, that helped the software giant maintain its dominant position in an increasingly competitive global market. You should definitely listen in to hear Brett highlight some of the fascinating greenfield opportunities SAP is pursuing on the continent.